Member Info for fleccy

According to this April 2023 article EE has the most customers, but I don't know if it includes MVNO's.

https://rechargevodafone.co.uk/discover-the-latest-uk-mobile-network-market-share-trends-which-providers-are-dominating-the-market/

"According to recent studies, EE holds the largest market share with over 27 million customers, followed closely by O2 with over 25 million customers. Vodafone and Three also hold significant market shares, with 23 million and 10 million customers respectively.

Now, back to the main topic. EE is indeed the largest mobile network provider in the UK, with the highest market share and the largest number of customers.

But what sets EE apart from its competitors? For starters, it offers the fastest 4G network in the UK, with coverage in over 99% of the country. It also offers a wide range of mobile plans for both individuals and businesses, including unlimited data and international roaming."

"Anyway, I agree best network. How do you explain loosing market share with it? BT management of their asset or a strategic play?"

To be honest it's difficult to untangle who has what as far as market share, revenue's, margin, etc. I also have no idea why O2 has targeted MVNO businesses and EE don't appear that bothered; I'd suggest O2 have more MVNO's because they've offered the best deals to compete for that business, whereas until recently EE's two biggest MVNO's were BT Mobile and Plusnet, but BT Mobile is winding down with BT consumer rebranding to EE.

The PSTN switch off is at the end of 2025 and I suspect EE are moving toward offering sim enabled phones as replacements for traditional landlines, probably using VOIP when at home

with Broadband connectivity available and using cell service when Broadband unavailable or when out and about. It's a no brainer to use mobile/voip enabled phone's as replacements for traditional landlines, probably with a range of phones and services offered to customers at various pricing.

Aus, we know you love all things Virgin Media and now VMO2, but EE beats the others across the board so they must be doing something right, wouldn't you agree?

https://rootmetrics.com/en-GB/content/uk-mobile-performance-review-2h-2022

"EE remains the operator to beat in UK-wide, nation, and metro area testing in 2H 2022: EE won every UK-wide RootScore Award outright, while also earning nearly every possible award across the nations and in major cities. EE also continued to provide users with fast speeds and superb reliability, while offering an excellent combination of 5G availability plus performance"

Https://news.sky.com/story/altnet-funding-crisis-deepens-as-airband-seeks-new-funds-12906020

"Airband Community Internet, which had set a target of connecting 600,000 premises to full-fibre broadband by 2025, has enlisted advisers to seek new funding, Sky News learns."

What I'm saying is EE's profits wont change, in the event of a merger between VOD and Three. I'm invested in both BT and VOD, so it's in my interest to see both companies do well, but there's no downside for BT with VOD and Three merging. The CMA and OFCOM will likely force VOD and Three to sell a chunk of spectrum to the other players, should the merger be authorised, so EE will likely benefit from acquiring some extra bandwidth. As far as the move from Four to Three MNO's, it will likely benefit all the players, due to a reduction in competition.

With EE becoming BT's main consumer unit, they could build market share if they wished to by undercutting rivals, as long as they don't offer service below cost of operations, and since BT own Openreach much of EE's operating costs feed back via Openreach earnings anyway, an advantage rivals don't have. Also Openreach/BT have a much larger national coverage than any other individual fibre access provider, so other mobile players will still need to pay for fibre to the cell in semi rural areas, and even if they don't go with Openreach they'll still have to pay someone else for that.

I can see the advantages for Three and VOD from merging, but at worst it's probably neutral for EE and may even be good for them too.

I forgot to add Virgin Mobile to the figures, as I'm not sure how many customers they have on O2 and how many they have on Vodafone. Google search isn't definitive, it appears VMO2 are in the process of migrating Virgin Mobile customers off Vodafone and on to O2, to be completed by the end of this year.

Your point is Aus? And even if you're correct what difference does it make?

If you add the main MVNO's, O2 already service nearly 10% more connections than EE, at around 36% of the UK total and EE at around 27%. Vodafone is around 14% behind EE around 10%. It isn't just about the number of connected customers though, it's also about margin.

EE probably have the best UK coverage and fastest mobile network, so they aren't the smallest in terms of network scale.

O2 have likely sacrificed margin in order to attract MVNO business, as their MVNO connections make up a significant percentage of their overall total.

"According to our study, EE is the most popular network provider in the UK, with over 22%, followed by O2 (17.5% of respondents) and Vodafone (just over 12%).

The remaining providers each occupied less than 10% of the number of respondents. Over 95% of people surveyed were supplied by one of the top 12 companies in the country."

Most common network providers in the UK

Network provider Percentage

EE 22.42%

O2 17.50%

Vodafone 12.48%

Three 9.24%

Virgin mobile 7.80%

Sky mobile 7.06%

Tesco mobile 6.76%

GiffGaff 4.77%

Other, please specify 4.08%

BT mobile 3.08%

ID mobile 2.39%

Plusnet mobile 1.14%

Talk mobile 0.89%

Unsure/don't know 0.40%

https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/studies/mobile-statistics/#:~:text=UK%20mobile%20phone%20user%20statistics,2021%20(around%202.6%20million).

https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/guides/mvnos-a-guide-to-coverage-and-pros-and-cons-of-virtual-networks/

Asda Mobile Vodafone

BT Mobile EE

giffgaff O2

iD Mobile Three

Lebara Mobile Vodafone

Lyca Mobile O2

Sky Mobile O2

SMARTY Three

Talkmobile Vodafone

Tesco Mobile O2

VOXI Vodafone

It isn't as simple as you imply Aus, there are other things to consider.

My personal unprofessional opinion is that I'd rather be invested in Equities, Property or some other inflation hedged asset, rather than cash, during periods of high inflation. The value of cash diminishes during periods of high inflation, possibly rapidly, whereas the valuation of Equities and other hard assets tend to increase in line with inflation. Because wages tend to increase with inflation and prices are based on what people can afford to pay, it stands to reason that cash savings earning interest below the rate of inflation, diminish in value the longer inflation persists.

It's up to everyone to do their own research and decide how they spend or invest, personally I like to invest in dividend paying stocks providing an annual income and a possible hedge against inflation. When the dividends come in, I have the choice to spend the income or reinvest while I see value in my target stocks.

For whatever reason, some posters deride my style of investing and would have everyone investing in US "Growth" stocks and go as far as trashing UK stocks in general, which seems a bit strange to me and suggests that they aren't even based in this country.

Clearly I wont get rich with my style of investing, but reinvesting dividends compounds returns over time and as long as I invest for the long term, holding when the stock prices dip, then I should see my portfolio and dividend returns grow over time.

No problem Longish, if you want any periods charting just ask and I'll alter the charts and post links. I can also produce charts for prices covering the same periods.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQ49B8X4hFFdtXb6WUx45CDRcgMt5FBglgZCFc5UnApKRpOX8cznaVjvfKeIWdC6xr70q5wCbdhpFe7/pubchart?oid=1937898192&format=interactive

All just my opinion:

I have no idea if US markets will see a bull run, but personally I see US markets as overvalued so more likely to crash than climb; The UK is undervalued and I have no idea how far the UK would follow the US down in the event of a US market crash, but it's possible we could finally see a rotation out of growth and into value dividend stocks under those circumstances, I can only hope. I'm also of the view that the brokers and big market players don't like dividend stocks, as dividend investors are more likely to hold than trade and brokers prefer volatility across the board; I wonder if they purposely push dividend paying stocks down to punish and shake out long term holders?

As far as inflation, I see that as a positive for Telecom and Banking stocks since UK Telecom companies can raise their prices by CPI+3.9%, and Banks benefit from higher NIMS as Central Banks increase interest rates. The market media appears to shape the narrative to whatever they're paid to present, by vested interests.

"Fleeces - I hasn't seen the charts you posted yesterday evening yet"

Doesn't surprise me Gutter5h!te

"SNP. I am pro independence. I want to see an independent country, an independent Scottish Conservative party, an independent Scottish Labour party, an independent Liberal party. Simply that. I don't care which party (ies) get me there."

Gazzleberry, that's something I actually agree with you on and I'm English. Hopefully you'll join the EU, with Independence, and we could build a solid border between our two "independent" countries, Non of this Free Travel area nonsense we have with Ireland, which should also end; That way we can all do our own thing, and properly compete with each other like all independent countries should.

Is Carney just another word for Carnival Employee?

"Carny, also spelled carnie, is an informal term used in North America for a traveling carnival employee, and the language they use, particularly when the employee operates a game ("joint"), food stand ("grab", "popper" or "floss wagon"), or ride ("ride jock") at a carnival. The term "showie" is used synonymously in Australia, while "showman" is used in the United Kingdom."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carny#:~:text=Carny%2C%20also%20spelled%20carnie%2C%20is,jock%22)%20at%20a%20carnival.

"Gutter says "It's only a few of us knows what we is doing""

Clearly he doesn't and neither do you. If you look at the Google charts I posted yesterday evening, Yesterday's volume was clearly high at 324,314,446, Wednesday was high too at 202,407,577.

12/06/2023 16:30:00 78,914,740

13/06/2023 16:30:00 93,712,598

14/06/2023 16:30:00 202,407,577

15/06/2023 16:30:00 80,011,992

16/06/2023 16:30:00 324,314,446

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQ49B8X4hFFdtXb6WUx45CDRcgMt5FBglgZCFc5UnApKRpOX8cznaVjvfKeIWdC6xr70q5wCbdhpFe7/pubchart?oid=2085752711&format=interactive

"BT Sport and Eurosport UK to be brought together to form a premium sports joint venture for customers in the UK & Ireland which will be owned 50:50 by BT plc and Warner Bros. Discovery.

Warner Bros. Discovery and BT plc will each directly contribute, sub-license or deliver the benefit of their respective sports rights and distribution agreements for the UK & Ireland to the JV.

The Transaction will deliver operational efficiencies through the transfer of the operating businesses of BT Sport to Warner Bros. Discovery.

BT plc will receive £93m from Warner Bros. Discovery and up to approximately £540m by way of an earn-out from the JV, subject to certain conditions being met.

BT plc will retain a 50% interest in the JV, and Warner Bros. Discovery will be granted a Call Option over BT plc’s interest in the JV, exercisable at specified points in the first four years of the JV.

The Transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including approvals by the relevant regulatory bodies and is expected to complete by the end of 2022."

https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-group-and-warner-bros-discovery-agree-to-form-new-premium-sports-joint-venture-for-the-uk-and-ireland/

UK DB pension schemes have already suffered at the hands Government intervention, by being forced to heavily invest in Bonds over Equities. Because bonds haven't given the returns seen by Equities, the Pension funds use derivatives to fill the returns gap and consequently suffered the law of unintended consequences with the recent LDI crisis.

I don't have a problem with the Government telling pension schemes to invest a high percentage of their funds in UK dividend paying stocks and a smaller proportion into riskier UK growth stocks, as long as the companies they invest in are moderately safe and return good yields. UK stocks are being manipulated down, pushed into bargain basement territory and acquired piecemeal by foreign entities. I would say now is the perfect time for UK pension schemes to direct funds into UK stocks, the US is clearly overvalued and the UK is extremely undervalued. It's about time the UK started kicking back and making it more difficult for the market to punish us whenever it see's fit.

I have serious doubts as to whether the CMA will allow a merger between Three and Vodafone, but some of the figures mentioned in the article are ridiculous and scare mongering in my opinion. For example my current sim only deal is £6.86 a month and my wife's is a similar price, a £180 per year increase would add £15 a month to each of our bills, or around a 218% increase in our monthly bills. Because of the scaremongering in the article, I struggle to take it seriously. The UK MNO's are moving a wholesale provider model, providing network to MVNO's with some owned by the MNO's, so the combination of wholesale providers and MVNO's should ensure competition remains healthy.

"BT Trading is engineered specifically for the global capital markets and can be integrated with leading unified communications systems from Microsoft and Cisco and choice of private wire services. As well as use on physical trading floors, it can be accessed by traders remotely. It includes a powerful suite of applications and devices and can be hosted by customers in their own data centres, by BT or in the public cloud."

https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-expands-customers-choice-of-cloud-based-integrated-trading-floor-communications/

"The 90 day average VOD total share trade volume is 111m."

Daily Volumes since 1st Feb 2023

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQ49B8X4hFFdtXb6WUx45CDRcgMt5FBglgZCFc5UnApKRpOX8cznaVjvfKeIWdC6xr70q5wCbdhpFe7/pubchart?oid=2085752711&format=interactive

Weekly Volumes since 1st Feb 2023

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQ49B8X4hFFdtXb6WUx45CDRcgMt5FBglgZCFc5UnApKRpOX8cznaVjvfKeIWdC6xr70q5wCbdhpFe7/pubchart?oid=903223882&format=interactive

Block pace has ramped up recently. The next estimated difficulty level is showing an above average leap, if the current pace is maintained, from current BTC Difficulty of 52.35 T to 55.40 T in 11 days. There's still time for that to change if the rate decreases, or increases.

https://www.coinwarz.com/mining/bitcoin/difficulty-chart#:~:text=The%20next%20Bitcoin%20difficulty%20adjustment

Over the last 3 days Foundry USA still rule the roost, with AntPool coming 2nd and lagging by around 25%.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSt0d6QGiK91IYiDXxGCxxwP4cYQ1TpRCxwf9myTPDqDbQnXKjknnEmiPKUxpj58Ws_vzT1DwCvFw0c/pubchart?oid=999935349&format=interactive